SC asks complainant if defamation case against tejashwi yadav required as remarks on Gujaratis withdrawn

A bench of Justices Abhay S. Oka and Ujjal Bhuyan asked the counsel of the complainant, Haresh Mehta, if the prosecution was any longer necessary since Yadav had withdrawn his remarks.

The apex court asked the complainant's counsel to seek instruction, saying, "The statement is very clear now; make up your mind now. Why do you want to prosecute the complaint? He has withdrawn that part of the statement in which he used certain expressions. So what more remains now?"

The apex court granted a week to the counsel of the complainant to seek instructions from the client on the withdrawal of remarks by Yadav and posted the matter for hearing on January 29.

The top court was hearing a plea of the Rashtriya Janata Dal (RJD) leader's petition seeking transfer of the criminal defamation complaint pending against him in an Ahmedabad court over his remarks from Gujarat to a 'neutral place', preferably Delhi.

Earlier, the bench had stayed the proceedings in the criminal defamation complaint and issued notice to the Gujarat resident who had filed it.

The criminal defamation complaint was filed against the RJD leader by Hareshbhai Mehta, the vice president of an organisation called the All India Anti-Corruption and Crime Preventive Council.

The complaint against Yadav was filed under sections 499 and 500 of the Indian Penal Code (IPC) for alleged criminal defamation.

It was filed before a magistrate court in Ahmedabad, Gujarat, after he allegedly said that "only Gujaratis can be thugs."

"Only Gujaratis can be thugs in the present situation, and their fraud (crime) will be forgiven. Who will be responsible if they abscond after they are offered the money belonging to the LIC and bank?" Yadav had said this in March last year.

In the defamation case, Mehta said that the statement was made in public, calling the entire Gujarati community thugs and defaming and humiliating all Gujaratis in public. (ANI)